Yep. We woke up late again. Team Handsome arose from our peaceful slumber around 11:30 am. Let’s go permanent vacation! When I walked into Alex’s room he was watching Home Alone 2. Power move, Lel. So we watched that for a bit before getting ready and heading out to lunch.

We got to China Pavilion at 1 pm with Alex’s parents, and Andrew came a little late. We got dim sum and shared a lot (standard for us). Steamed pork buns, shrimp dumplings, beef chow mein, shumai. There was a lot, and to our credit we ate most it. There was some little girl at the table next to us listening to THE MOST obnoxious Asian children’s song on her iPad on repeat the entire meal. So that was fun. After lunch we went to Tj Max real quick where Alex got some socks and an umbrella for his car for the road trip. We arrived back at the Lelchuk’s at 3:30, just in time for rest hour. We took a cheeky nap for an hour or so and I finally called my parents which was great. After that I planned out a sketch for our road trip. I wrote down the order of stops we’re going to take and driving distance between each place according the road atlas Alex bought this summer. We still need to finalize our route but now we have a strong foundation to plan that.

At 5:30 pm we took a field trip to Aunt Ros’ apartment a few minutes away from the house. She’s Alex’s great aunt and is a lovely lady who lives in a gorgeous penthouse apartment with a stunning view of the ocean and city. We brought her leftover dim sum and had a drink with her. Alex gave me the tour and I took some pictures from the balcony. She absolutely adores Alex and his mother – she was so excited to see him. We stayed for about an hour and then left to visit Alex’s mom’s parents (aka his grandparents) who live about 5 minutes from Aunt Ros. They let us interrupt their dinner for a quick visit. Once again, Alex has lovely family. We were only there about 10 minutes before we had to head home to get ready for dinner.

Our reservation at Quality Meats was for 8:15, but we arrived around 8:30 and were still seated. This place was classy and had delicious food. I ordered off the Miami Spice menu, which is basically like a restaurant month menu that a lot of places in Miami have. I started with seared scallops, had the filet mignon with sautéed spinach for my entrée, and coffee and doughnuts ice cream for dessert (yes, homemade coffee ice cream served on top of a homemade donut #MURICA). The Lelchuk’s brought a 2006 red wine of some sort that our waiter gushed over. I wish I knew more about wine so I could have appreciated it more, but I knew it tasted great. I also had a Quality Mule, their take on a Moscow mule, which was citrus-y and refreshing. And the steak was cooked to perfect and a sizeable portion. Alex’s mom and I also ended up splitting onion rings, so overall it was a filling though not overly filling meal.

Alex and I took his car down so we could split off and meet up with Elise, “Moster” Lotte, Chris, and Archie at their hotel. We bought some drinks at Publix before dinner and left them in the car. They weren’t totally warm, but weren’t nearly as cool as when we bought them 2 hours before dinner (duh). Finding parking was tough, so we eventually caved and parked in a garage across the street after we failed to find street parking. I walked as quickly as I could with our stuff to the hotel because I had to pee SO badly. We changed into shorts in the bathroom and met up with the crew by the pool in the back. Even though it was late – around 11:15 or so at that point – it was still humid and we were sweating just sitting there. We hung out with them until about 1:30 am. It was Archie’s last night in Miami and was great to catch him before he left. And it’s always a good time with Wekeela people. We spoke and laughed about a lot. Oh yeah it’s September now. Dammit.

We left so Alex could give me a drive by tour of South Beach at night. It wasn’t crowded fortunately – I didn’t expect many people to be out at nearly 2 am on a Tuesday – but there were still some places that were poppin’. I can imagine that on the weekends things get real saucy down there. There were some really cool clubs and restaurants, and I can see why Miami nightlife is such a big deal. We drove the entire length of Ocean Boulevard down there, arriving back at Alex’s around 2:15. “Are you tired? Hungry?” No and no, but I can eat. We watched food network until about 3:45 am, including such hits as Unwrapped, Diners Drive-ins and Dives, and Rachael Ray’s Kid’s Cooking Challenge (or whatever that show is called). This little kid called Nick on that show is hilarious, btw. Check it out. We passed out easily real late. Another great day in Miami.

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